ICYMI for August 8

Toshio Suzuki, the general manager of Studio Ghibli, went on television to announce that the beloved studio is taking a “brief pause” to consider what’s next. Suzuki took over for the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, who retired last summer. Rumors have been swirling recently that Studio Ghibli is in such dire financial straits that it may be forced to close down for good.

San Diego-based Stone Brewing Co. isn’t just looking to expand to Germany, but also somewhere east of the Mississippi River. Reportedly, Richmond, VA; Norfolk, VA; and Columbus, OH are the three finalists to land the brewery. According to the linked Richmond Times-Dispatch article, the City Council convened a special meeting to help speed up development along the James River. I’d like to say good luck to them, but I have to cheer on Columbus.

Sorry, Twitch fans, but your dreams of streaming Lady Gaga’s greatest hits just took a major beating. With a rumored buyout from Google looming, the popular video streaming platform is taking steps to curb the use of copyrighted audio. The move only affects archived videos for now, but I imagine someone out there is hard at work on an algorithm or something to scrub copyrighted audio from a live stream.

Joss Whedon took to Twitter to announce that filming has wrapped on the sequel to 2012’s The Avengers. A single image features Whedon staring into the camera with the caption “What the hell do I do now?” Post-production, Joss. Lots and lots of post-production. Avengers: Age of Ultron releases May 1, 2015.

Who is Casey Hudson? Well, he was the executive producer of the Mass Effect series, the next installment of which is currently in development. Hudson began his time at BioWare as a technical artist on Neverwinter Nights and MDK2 before stepping into the project director role for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. All of us at ICYMI wish Mr. Hudson success in his next endeavor.